NAPLES, Fla. — On Thursday, it was the sound that was responsible for waking up the state of Florida, when an emergency alert test was sent to everyone's cell phones around 4:45 in the morning.
If you were one of the millions of people it potentially woke up, you realized it was only a test.
Florida Division of Emergency Management said the emergency alert test was actually a complete accident.
On Twitter, FDEM said the test alert was only supposed to be aired through TVs.
FDEM went on to say appropriate actions were being made to ensure this type of early morning alert only happens when there is a true emergency.
An emergency like severe weather, which Austin Flannery, a Meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said is an important reason to not silence these features on your cell phone.
“If a warning is needed, if we need to alert you to severe weather, we need a way of doing that, that's going to get your attention, that's going to wake you up,” said Flannery.
Flannery said the National Weather Service depends on these types of alerts to help them send out important information.
Contextually, Flannery adds that before today, he had never seen the Florida Division of Emergency Management make this mistake.
FDEM has confirmed that its contract with the company Everbridge — which provides the technical coding and instructions required to push out emergency alerts — has been terminated.
Everbridge sent the wrong technical specifications for this alert, which ultimately pushed the alert over the cellphones instead of TVs.
"Good government identifies errors, corrects them expediently, and holds people accountable when appropriate. The Division recognizes that this error was unacceptably disruptive and will correct it," FDEM said. "Nonetheless, the Division stresses the importance of being able to receive emergency alerts as disasters can happen at any time and these alerts save lives. Please do maintain emergency alert notifications on your cellular device – we will ensure they are used appropriately henceforth."
If you want to hear how Naples residents reacted to the early morning alert, click on the video just above this article.
